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Finland’s only festival of contemporary Asian cinema Helsinki Cine Aasia is this year organised already for the fifth time. The festival was established by four experts on East Asian cultures and cinema – Eija Niskanen, the festival’s artistic director, Jenni Peisa, managing director and producers Leena Eerolainen and Johanna Rissanen. Niskanen, Peisa and Eerolainen are still strongly involved in day-to-day organising of the festival, and in addition, there are several other enthusiastic team members helping out each year.

Although the festival’s founding foursome knew each other through various channels even before, the decision to set up Helsinki Cine Aasia was made when Niskanen and Eerolainen bumped into each other at the Tokyo International Film Festival in the autumn 2011.

Helsinki Cine Aasia is organised by the Asian Cinema Association of Finland. It was founded in 2011 by four experts on East Asian cultures and cinema – Eija Niskanen, Jenni Peisa, Leena Eerolainen and Johanna Rissanen.

The inaugural Helsinki Cine Aasia took place in 2013. Of the awesome founding foursome, Niskanen, Peisa and Eerolainen are still tightly involved in organising the festival. Below they talk about their relationship with Asian cinema and some memorable moments along their festival journey so far.

In the picture, there are members from the Helsinki Cine Aasia organising team in 2014. From left to right: Sonia Junttila, graphic designer, Leena Eerolainen, producer, Johanna Rissanen, producer, Ria Vaahto, press officer and Jenni Peisa, managing director. In the middle is Eija Niskanen, festival’s artistic director.

In 2017 we will be celebrating five full years of Helsinki Cine Aasia! We will then be back with even more fabulous selection of films and events – and that’s what you can help us with too.

Participate to a customer survey and help us improve Helsinki Cine Aasia. Respondents to the survey have a chance to win a screening pass to next year’s festival. There are ten questions in the survey and it takes about 5 minutes to complete. The survey closes at the end of March 2016.

The delivery of the copy of the film Tharlo has been delayed and it will not arrive to Finland in time to be screened at Helsinki Cine Aasia. On Saturday 5 March at 12noon, we will screen A Girl at My Door instead of Tharlo.

Tickets to the screening of Tharlo can be used for its replacing screening of A Girl at My Door, or exchanged at Helsinki Cine Aasia ticket sales desk in Andorra to another screening or free tickets to Helsinki Cine Aasia.

Long-awaited Helsinki Cine Aasia 2016 is finally here! Later today, the screening of the Johnnie To’s dazzling musical Officewill kick off a feast of contemporary East and Southeast Asian cinema. Office will be screened at Kinopalatsi on Thursday 3.3. at 6pm.

Japanese films have always been a big hit at Helsinki Cine Aasia, and the advance ticket sales give reason to believe that they will remain popular with the festival-goers this year too. There are not less than six films from Japan in this year’s programme – all different but all guaranteed to provide an unforgettable cinematic experience!

As a special treat, the festival has invited to Helsinki Remton Zuasola from the Philippines. The director with true trademark style of long shots and theater-like settings will attend the screening of his latest film SWAP, an autobiographical kidnapping drama, on Saturday 5 March at 5pm at Andorra.

The four-day festival continues until Sunday 6.3. It’s not yet too late to get your tickets!